If it's true, as I presume, that you're not paying a whole lot of attention to the NBA, I have this bit of news for you: Only four teams (out of 15) in the entire Eastern Conference are as many as two games over .500.

There is Detroit, at a wondrous 39-8 (although it has lost two in a row). There is Miami, at 30-19. There is Cleveland, at 28-19. And there is New Jersey, at 25-21.

That's it. The next best on that side are Milwaukee (24-23) and Indiana (23-22), each of which is straddling mediocrity.

The West isn't that much better, frankly. Only six of the 15 clubs over there have winning records: Dallas (38-10), San Antonio (37-10), Phoenix (31-17), Los Angeles Clippers (29-17), Memphis (26-20) and Denver (26-24).

So, if you do the arithmetic, you'll find that there are 10 pretty good NBA squads, and 20 others that range from so-so all the way down to lousy . . . or worse, to Charlotte and the Knicks. That seems to me to be a bad ratio.

If more than just a smattering of casual fans cared, this could be a headline. Alas, it's merely a blogging observation on a snowy morning in Syracuse.